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Prioritizing Allegiances


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2.How are we to obey the commandment to "Honor your father and your mother" in the kind of situation Gideon finds himself? What justification does Gideon have for his action? (Matthew 10:37).

I know that we are told to honor our father and our mother but we are also told that we should not honor them more than we honor God and that we should not honor sons or daughters more either. As sad as it may seem God has to be the centre of our lives even if it means we have to stand up for our beliefs in front of our own family. Deep down I feel that our standing up for our faith and trust in God could even be the reason for those close to us coming to know Christ in a more personal way through observing what He has done and is still doing in our lives. This appeared to happen to Gideon's father Joash and although I don't think he was absolutely against God he was neither one way or the other just a happy medium. However when it came to the crunch he chose to stand up for his son's actions and thereby acknowledging that God was the one and only God.

To conclude it wasn't really a matter of choice for Gideon - as much as he may have loved his family his faith in God was more important to him as it should be to all of us today. Even if some of our family may not share the same beliefs as we do we can't blame ourselves and should continue in our following of Christ and leave them in God's loving hands.

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Q2. How are we to obey the commandment to "Honor your father and your mother" in the kind of situation Gideon finds himself? What justification does Gideon have for his action? (Matthew 10:37).

We must obey this commandment, because it is given to us by God. But at the same time we need to understand that God comes first, because He is our Creator, because without Him we wouldn't have eternal life. It is written that we must love God first and then our father and mother, if we check the 10 commandments we find that the first one is telling us that He is the Lord our God, He is our heavenly Father, without Him we would not exist today.

I think that Gideon was in a very delicated spot, but he knew that his first duty was towards God and then his family, he also knew that by obeying God he would bring salvation for his family.

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As the mother of 8 children, I can say that there is no greater honor for me than to see my children serve God....no greater dishonor than to see them fall from God. If I fall into sin, then I would not want my children to hold me up in that sin but rarher to honor me enough to help me get out of it. I think Gideon brought great honor to his father....

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2. To honor is to respect, to admire, to value, and to appreciate. I think that Gideon could do all of these things and still give complete obedience to God. The justification that Gideon had for his actions was that God must come first in his life - his total allegiance must be to the one and only true God who had revealed Himself to Gideon.

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I think we can still honor our father and mother in the same situation Gideon was in. He followed what God asked him and his beliefs. If we follow what God wants and it's not necessarily what our parents want..we can still have love and honor them. Being "totally agreeable" does not always mean to honor someone.

Gidoen is justified in what he does because he is following what the Lord his God has asked him to do. Are we always justified in the things we do? ( I would venture to guess not..but when we follow the Lord that is all the justification we need.)

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I don't believe Gideon dishonored his Father and Mother but as we are told to not put others before God, he did exactly that. God should always be first no matter what. I believe Gideon still loved honored and respected his family. God gave him his parents and he thought of them and if you do what God ask of you and show him love and respect and honor Him then you are also honoring your parents.

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In a way, Gideon honored his parents by keeping them from knowing what he was doing. If they had known, they would have had to put themselves on the line by either agreeing with what he was doing or opposing it. Since they did not know, then they were saved from making this decision to oppose Baal and the other idols. After the fact, they could say they didn't know and also slyly say Baal must not be a god if he could not defend himself! Perhaps it reminded them of the preeminence of the Lord God that Israel was supposed to be worshipping, so that they returned to Him. As some have said, we honor our parents by obeying the Lord God! He must come first in our lives. Only so are living up to the values our family should have given us!

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Gideon was to honor his father, honor is respect to show respect for your mother and father but it doe not mean that we are to break the Lord's commandments to do this, Gideons father knew of the commandment of no God before Him but was still disobeying I think Gideon honored

his father by following the Lord.

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We are to honor our father and mother because the Lord God commanded us to do so. They are our leaders. They teach us right from wrong. They have a charge from God to raise us upright and in his paths.

However, when our parents turn away from God, we are commanded to follow God above all. We must choose to follow God and leave our parents, sons, daughters, etc... if they should interfere with following the Lord, God.

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Gideon must honor his Father before he could honor his father. His earthly father was in direct opposion to his Heavenly Father. If a parent is acting against God's will and a child's actions may bring that parent back to the Lord, then that is the highest form of honor!

I have a friend whom I love dearly who has a similar situation. Her husband is backsliding and doesn't want her or the children attending church or fellowshipping with believers. In obeying her husband as we're commanded to do, she is not staying in God's will.

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How are we to obey the commandment to "Honor your father and your mother" in the kind of situation Gideon finds himself? What justification does Gideon have for his action? (Matthew 10:37).

The Lord commands us to put Him first. This is over any other relationships. What better way is there to honor your father and mother than to be obedient to the Lord? Gideon's father was not following the Lord at the time either. It is through Gideon's actions that his father was reminded of the Lord's commands. Gideon's justification was that he was being obedient to the Lord.

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Q2. How are we to obey the commandment to "Honor your father and your mother" in the kind of situation Gideon finds himself? What justification does Gideon have for his action? (Matthew 10:37).

Gideon was in a situation of either obeying God or not. We don't have any record of his father telling him to worship the false gods or to protect their altars. However, it's implied that Gideon's father had gone astray. After Gideon tore down the altar and rebuilt it to God's favor his father, Jo'ash, stood up for him. Gideon's actions helped get Jo'ash back to revering God.

As many noted in the previous question comments, Gideon also tore the altar down at night and may have done so more to protect his family and be able to accomplish God's command than out of fear. If that was so it certainly shows honor to his father.

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Q2. How are we to obey the commandment to "Honor your father and your mother" in the kind of situation Gideon finds himself? What justification does Gideon have for his action? (Matthew 10:37).

:unsure: I would say,not knowing if I am right or not,but Gideon didnt break the commandment"Honor your father and your mother,because Gideon was doing what God had told him to do.Gideon was to obey God first.That should be applied to our lives also.We should always be obedient to God having Faith and trust knowing God will be with us in directing us in what we should do.Also in Matthew 10:37,it tell us we should love God above all else or we are not worthy of God.Saying also in verse 38:whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me,and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.So to me we are to put God above "ALL ELSE".God loves us very ,very,much,God also would never put more on us than we could handle.God knows who each and everyone of us are,and He knows what each and everyone of us are capable of doing with Gods help and guidance in our life. :rolleyes: Blessings Linda

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Q2. How are we to obey the commandment to "Honor your father and your mother" in the kind of situation Gideon finds himself? What justification does Gideon have for his action? (Matthew 10:37).

In Matthew 10:35-37 we can read Jesus

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We should honor our parents but not to the point where we will tolerate them if we know for a fact that they are disobeying the Lord's commandments. For Gideon to allow those altars to exist would mean that he also tolerates the worship of other gods. We should honor and respect our parents but we should always honor and respect the Lord more.

The Lord will protect and provide for us if parents turn their backs on their children because of their faith in Him. But can we say the same of our parents once we turn our back on the Lord and face His wrath on His second coming?

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One should always obey ones parents unless they tell or ask us to do something illegal or immoral. God's laws are to


be obeyed even if it means going against the wishes of a parent.

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